On the 1st December 1581 Edmund Campion, alongside two of his brother priests, suffered execution at Tyburn. He was forty-one years old. His life, though short, was truly remarkable, and it is not without good reason that his name is still remembered so well and his sacrifice duly honoured. Campion was a gifted scholar, educated at Christ’s Hospital, London and St John’s College, Oxford where he became a junior fellow aged only seventeen. It was whilst at Oxford that he won the attention of Queen Elizabeth and the patronage of the highly influential William Cecil. He consequently became a deacon in the established church, though his discomfort at doing so took him to Ireland where he pursued more study and finally to Douai in the Low Countries where he was ultimately reconciled with the Catholic faith.On leaving Douai in 1573, he made pilgrimage to Rome where he entered the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits had no English Province at this time, so his novitiate, ongoing studies, and ordination took place at Brunn in Moravia. It was here that he was prepared for his mission to preach in England. He was a man of intense energy, of fervour in faith and given to impetuosity. But it was this zeal and commitment to the faith that would serve him well in his mission to England. Disembarking in London on 24th June 1580 Campion, disguised as a jewel merchant, faced an almighty struggle. The mission had already been compromised and the hunt for him and his companions was on. Undeterred, he pressed on and preached with zeal in the counties of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Berkshire, and Lancashire. He issued his Challenge to the Privy Council to set forth his aims, and then a refutation of Protestantism, the Decem Rationes ("Ten Reasons"), which caused considerable controversy. Not least, a great sensation was caused when four-hundred copies were found on the benches of St Mary’s, the University Church here at Oxford, in 1581.
A vast manhunt ended when he was caught preaching, at Lyford Grange in Berkshire, by the spy George Eliot. His imprisonment nearly ended after a mere four days when he accepted Elizabeth as monarch; however he would not renounce his adherence to the Catholic faith, even though he was offerred the Archbishopric of Canterbury if he would. Four months of torture and interrogation followed and he was finally sentenced to death for treason on 14th November 1581. When sentenced he sang the Te Deum. On December 1st, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. The cruelty of such a death is hard to imagine yet he went to it gladly; such courage, such selflessness and commitment to the faith is rarely seen. It inevitably leads one to question; what would I do in such circumstances; how deep is my commitment to the faith? As we give thanks for his witness, and prepare for Christ’s coming, should we not also ask if we sometimes allow our lives, our problems, to escape a reasoned sense of perspective.
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